LeMans reveal 20/21 Hypercar category

The top category in endurance racing 

New rules for the top tier Hypercar category were released to day by the WEC and are summarised below.

TOP-TIER CARS
While governed by one rulebook, manufacturers may choose between:

• Designing a prototype in the style of a hypercar
• Developing a racing machine based on a road-going hypercar (a minimum of 20 road models must be produced over a two-year period)

The ACO and FIA have drawn up the following principles to guarantee the competitiveness of all cars in order to :

• Weight : 1100 kg
• Powertrain average total output: 550 kW (750 hp)
• Performance level: 3:30, average lap time at Le Mans in race conditions
• Single tyre supplier

THE 2020 HYPERCAR
Aerodynamics

• Free design of body and underbody
• Imposed aerodynamic safety criteri

Hybrid systems are not mandatory

• Maximum hybrid system output is 200 kW (270 hp)
• This system drives the front wheels on the prototype, whereas the position is identical to the street-legal model for road-going hypercars

Combustion engine

• For prototypes: bespoke racing design or modified hypercar engine
• For road-going hypercars: based on the original car or an engine made by the same manufacturer
• Regulated power curve
• Single fuel

THE TECHNOLOGY
The goal
What is the aim of these regulations? To create a top class with a level playing field and limited impact of the budget on the performance to encourage teams to run two cars in a full FIA WEC season over a five-year campaign.
Regulations
Performance will be less reliant on the amount invested. High budget expenditure will not imply performance advantage.
Homologation
Chassis based on original cars will be subject to similar safety criteria as the prototypes. For prototypes, specifications and safety criteria remain unchanged compared to the current LMP1 class. Homologation is valid for five years. 
Hybrid system
An energy restitution threshold for the front wheels has been defined, to contain the advantages of a front-wheel hybrid system (4 wheel drive) and ensure that 2-wheel drive cars can compete.

• 120 kph with slicks
• Between 140 and 160 kph (a fix value will be defined) with wet-weather tyres

THE HYPER SPORT CATEGORY
In order to level playing field between the two types of cars, prototypes and road car going hypercars, the principles of balancing performance are as follows: 

• The performance windows established and confirmed at the time of homologation will ensure cars have comparable performance levels.
• With two types of cars (prototypes and hypercars) in the same class, a system of balance of performance will be introduced. It will be largely based on the  automatic BoP currently and successfully used in LMGTE Pro.

Two teams commit to the new Hypercar category for WEC

Toyota Gazoo Racing

Toyota Gazoo Racing will continue its participation in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) beyond 2020 following the confirmation of new technical regulations.
The team already announced its participation in the 2019-2020 season, the final campaign with the current-specification LMP1 regulations, and today confirms it will be present on the grid when the new generation of top-class endurance race cars make their WEC debut in autumn 2020.
Earlier today in Le Mans, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest revealed final details of the new technical regulations following detailed discussions with several stakeholders, including newly-crowned World Champions Toyota Gazoo Racing.
As a result, Toyota Gazoo Racing is delighted to confirm it will participate in the 2020-2021 season with a hybrid-powered prototype based on the GR Super Sport road car. Both road and race car are undergoing design and intensive development at the company’s technical centres in Toyota City, Higashi-Fuji and Cologne.
Toyota Gazoo Racing enthusiastically welcomes the future challenge of competing against other sportscar manufacturers in the new top category of WEC and the Le Mans 24 Hours and is confident in an exciting, successful period for endurance racing.
Track testing of the new race car, the name of which will be revealed at a later date, will begin next year prior to the start of the 2020-2021 season while further details of the GR Super Sport road car will be issued by Toyota Gazoo Racing in due course.

ASTON MARTIN VALKYRIE HYPERCAR TO FIGHT FOR OVERALL VICTORY AT LE MANS

• Aston Martin to enter at least two works Valkyrie race cars in the 2020/21 FIA World Endurance Championship
• Aston Martin entry continues long tradition of British-built road cars fighting for top honours, evoking the true spirit of Le Mans
• Manufacturer of revolutionary hypercar commits to multi-year programme

14 June 2019, Le Mans: On the eve of the 60th anniversary of its glorious win in the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans, Aston Martin announces that it will once again bid for outright victory in the French endurance classic in 2021.
 
Following the announcement of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s decision to introduce hypercars to the top category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Aston Martin will field a minimum of two works Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercars, specially-developed for the 2020/21 FIA WEC season, including the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.
 
Britain has enjoyed a long romance with the Circuit de la Sarthe, indeed in 2021 it will be 100 years since an Aston Martin first raced there. But it’s more than a quarter of a century since a British-built derivative of a road car claimed top honours at Le Mans, and invoking the pioneering spirit of the company’s founder Lionel Martin and the ingenuity of some of Britain’s best engineering minds, Aston Martin is now set to carry that mantle into the next decade with a bold attempt to win Le Mans and the world championship.
 
Aston Martin Valkyrie, the world’s most extreme road car and platform for this future challenger, is the combined vision of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, Aston Martin EVP and Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman and Aston Martin VP and Chief Special Operations Officer David King. It was created as a result of a technical collaboration between Aston Martin, Red Bull Advanced Technologies and project partner AF Racing.
 
In line with WEC’s newly confirmed ‘hypercar’ regulations designed to allow race-prepared derivatives of the world’s fastest road cars to fight at the forefront of world sportscar racing, the Aston Martin Valkyrie race car will draw on all the radical pillars of the road car and its track-only AMR Pro variant.
 
The new car will feature a race-prepared version of its bespoke high-revving normally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine. Placed within a lightweight carbon fibre structure, and featuring F1 inspired aerodynamic technology, it forms a fully competitive platform capable of challenging for outright race wins.
 
Aston Martin Vice President and Chief Special Operations Officer, David King said: “The FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans represent the ultimate challenge for the Aston Martin Valkyrie – the world’s most extreme hypercar. Designed and built with the purpose of pushing boundaries on the road, it’s natural to conclude that the next stage in its development would be to measure its capabilities on the track. I can think of no better way to do that than to compete in a world championship and the most prestigious and famous race of all.”
 
Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO, Andy Palmer said: “We have always said that we would one day bring Aston Martin back to Le Mans with the intention of going for the outright win when the time was right – now is that time. David Brown came here in 1959, with a car and a team of drivers capable of winning. We intend to do the same in 2021. The Aston Martin Valkyrie is primed for such a challenge and sits perfectly within the ACO’s new ‘hypercar’ rule framework. Bringing to bear all of our previous experience and knowledge of competing at the top levels of motorsport, we embark on this most ambitious project with the necessary ingredients for success. What could be more evocative than the wail of an Aston Martin V12 leading the charge into the night on the Mulsanne straight? ”